ORLANDO - UCF stranded nine men on base in its game against the University of South Florida, which resulted in a 9-4 loss. The only bright spot on the evening for the Golden Knights was senior short stop Mike Myers. Myers ended up a triple shy of hitting for the cycle and was 3-for-5 at the plate with one RBI and a run scored.
UCF struck first when they scored on what started out as great play by the Bulls second baseman. With a man on second Ty Hanson hit the ball up the middle that Mike Macaluso made a diving stab at, holding the runner at third, but a bad throw to first allowed Jeremy Frost to trot home with the games first run in the second inning.
USF would not trail for long as they tied the score in the bottom of the third with a single by Travis Brown and a RBI double by Mike Cunningham to left field. A stolen base put Cunningham on third and he would try to score when the next batter popped to right. Frost preserved the tie when he turned the double play from right field on the fly ball, gunning down Cunningham with a frozen rope to the plate. UCF took its final lead of the game in the fifth inning when Myers made it 2-for-2 on the night with a shot that landed just over the 375 mark in left field at Red McEwen Field.
USF could not prevent the Knights from getting on base, but was able to stop them from crossing the plate. UCF added two pointless runs off a Dee Brown single in the ninth inning. The Golden Knights left at least one runner on base in every inning except the eighth, while out hitting USF 13 to 10.
The South Florida Bulls put two runs on the board in the fifth to take their first lead of the game and never looked back, scoring three more in the sixth and three more in the eighth to extinguish any hope of a UCF come back.
Neither team received great pitching performances or defense in the game as both teams combined to use eight pitchers and make five errors. David Austen did pitch well enough in his 5.1 innings to record his second victory of the year, while surrendering two runs on eight hits. Burt Clark suffered his second loss of the season, giving up five runs on six hits in 5.1 innings of work.
One promising note for Golden Knight fans in this game was seeing Matt Fox on the mound for the first time this season. The highly anticipated freshman had been sidelined until now, but showed that he has the skills everyone was talking about in the fall. Fox threw 1.2 innings and was the only UCF pitcher that did not give up a hit.
The Golden Knights will be on the road this weekend when they take on Campbell University in Buies Creek, North Carolina. UCF will play three games against the Camels. Game one will be on Friday, April 5 and will start at 6:00 p.m. Saturday, April 6 will see both teams square off in a double header starting at 1:00 p.m.
UCF Strands Nine Men On Base In 9-4 Loss To South Florida
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